Latest IT Leadership Changes & Projects

This week HubSpot published a great post on 5 Ways to Be 5X More Productive. While we agree that all 5 ways are incredibly helpful in increasing productivity, one strategy in particular really stood out to us: Break up your day into “activity chunks”. The article states that it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to productivity after a distraction. 25 minutes! As a solution, HubSpot suggests that you focus on ONE highly effective task at a time. Jumping from a call to a demo to an email is a surefire way to lose concentration and end up in that 25 minute time-suck.

We recommend spending a solid portion of your day fishing where the fish are. Spend one “chunk” of your day focusing on the opportunities that have the highest propensity to buy. These opportunities are identified by the organizations that are experiencing specific pain points related to your product, have recently implemented a new solution that your product supports, have hired on a new IT leader who has a large budget, or are focused on initiatives related to your services. These are called Triggers.

Check out a few of the Triggers our in-house research team uncovered last week.

THESE COMPANIES ALL HAD HUGE LEADERSHIP CHANGES:

Zions Bancorporation has promoted Jennifer Smith from Director, Enterprise Operations to the role of Chief Information Officer. The organization has indicated they are planning to leverage technology to cut about $120 million a year in operational expense. Sources have also indicated that Zions Bancorporation is interested in IT initiatives related to collaboration systems, including efforts that will drive the use of the company’s Microsoft SharePoint solution and set the direction for social media and messaging functions.

Hyperion Insurance Group has recently announced the appointment of Lyn Grobler as the new Group Chief Information Officer following the departure of David Jack. Lyn will be joining the company in January 2016. Sources have indicated plans to migrate the company’s infrastructure environment to a complete cloud-based solution over the next 12-18 months. There are further indications that the organization is interested in implementation efforts surrounding the company’s current applications such as Xactium, Workday, and Anaplan.

Scottradehas named Steve Jensen as their new Chief Information Security Officer. Previously, Jensen served as Chief Information Security Officer at Ameriprise Financial. Sources have indicated an interest toward the implementation of security controls within the company’s privileged access management solution to enhance information security. The company recently disclosed a data breach that targeted the personal contact information of 4.6 million of its clients. The attack is suspected to have occurred between late 2013 and early 2014.

THESE COMPANIES ALL STARTED BIG INITIATIVES:

Sources have indicated that Stanley Black & Decker plans to invest about $250,000 towards upcoming marketing projects related to business intelligence and analytics. The company is planning to begin evaluating solutions in the next 3-6 months. Stanley Black & Decker is currently planning upcoming initiatives that will drive the expansion of the company’s Ariba P2P eProcure solution and Citi Supplier Finance program. The company is planning IT initiatives that will support the implementation of a business analysis & reporting solution as part of the company’s ongoing finance transformation efforts.

McDonald’s is in the midst of implementing MCD.com in the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region. They are currently in the midst of digital initiatives related to the company’s Adobe Marketing Cloud Suite. Sources have indicated that the company is in the process of data center migration of critical applications with multiple integration points. Sources have also indicated plans related to the enhancement of its single sign-on infrastructure. McDonald’s currently single sign-on infrastructure is based on Security Assertion Markup Format (SAML).

Sources have indicated that NuStar Energy plans for upcoming enterprise content management (ECM) related projects focused on cloud storage, web content management, document management, and business process management (BPM) over the next 6-12 months. Sources indicate plans to migrate the company’s IT environment to the cloud. The company plans to spend about $1 million to $3 million towards upcoming IT projects focused on application development and support. NuStar plans to invest up to $500,000 to support upcoming IT initiatives related to disaster recovery over the next 6-12 months.

Do any of these triggers highlight opportunities which your business can support through its unique solutions and services? Once you’ve identified opportunities that fit your target market, we’ll help you identify all key decision makers involved (and how to get in touch with them directly). Don’t spend your time wading through prospects that aren’t likely to be receptive to your call. Focus your day around activities that are the most likely to produce a high return.